"Sunshine," Alice says over lunch one day. "How are you and Ichigo getting along?"

Sunshine pauses, halfway through an apple slice, and glances at the doll. Ichigo is sitting on the edge of the table, patiently waiting for orders. Sunshine has to swallow her mouthful of apple before she can reply. "Ichigo is a good doll."

"I'm glad you like her," Alice says. A few dolls down to sweep the remains of her own lunch away. "Do you think that you've gotten used to giving her orders?"

Sunshine nods, and decides to demonstrate. She looks to Ichigo, getting the doll's attention, then glances to her plate. With a subtle gesture, she signals Ichigo into action. Ichigo stands, and toddles across the tabletop, her tiny feet clicking with each step. She grabs Sunshine's fork—which is almost as tall as she is—hefts it into the air, then spins it around and spears a slice of apple. With that, she turns and offers the bite up to Sunshine. Sunshine takes a big bite and looks to her mother for approval.

Alice watches this in obvious surprise. "Hmm. That's... very good," she says. "How did you teach her to understand hand gestures, though?"

Sunshine frowns as she considers that. She can't really explain it. It just sort of... happened. She used to be a doll. She knows how dolls think, and what they're looking for. Directing Ichigo came to her much more naturally than talking did. She shakes her head.

"Do you mean that you don't know?"

Sunshine nods.

"That's considered a very difficult technique," Alice says, still looking over the doll like she expects to spot the trick behind it. "You must get along with her very well."

Sunshine beams and pats Ichigo's head. Ichigo accepts the gesture without any reaction. Sunshine can't help but feel a little disappointed. She's very proud of Ichigo, but no matter how much she praises the doll, Ichigo doesn't give any sign of understanding it. She's sure that it will happen sooner or later, though. Sunshine subtly gestures with a fingertip, and in response, Ichigo sits the fork down.

Alice watches this, then folds her arms on the table in front of her. "How would you like to start learning to control her attacks?"

Sunshine's eyes go wide. She's pretty sure that being able to make Ichigo shoot is the only thing standing between her and fighting bad guys like her parents do. After all, she already knows how to fly. Once she knows how to attack, she can go on adventures! And fight moon rabbits and dragons! She nods so forcefully that her hair bounces.

"Good," Alice says with a smile. "After you finish your lunch, we can go out and get started."

Sunshine stiffens up in amazement. After a moment to recover, she starts hurriedly stuffing apple slices into her mouth.

The two are barely a meter out the door when a very strange sight makes Sunshine draw to a stop.

The snow in the front yard is marred by a long, wide rut. It zig-zags back and forth across the lawn. At one end, near the front door, it starts out tiny. At the other end, Marisa is crouched alongside a ball of snow that's easily as tall as Sunshine is. She fusses over the snowball, oblivious to the pair.

Alice seems confused by this too, and stops mid-step. "... Marisa, what are you doing?"

"Snowman!" Marisa says, without looking back. She scoops up a double-handful of snow and presses it against the side of the giant snowball, then smooths it out with her hands. Sunshine watches this curiously.

"What does that have to do with combat practice?"

"Huh?" Marisa pauses now, and looks back over her shoulder. "Well, she's gotta have something to shoot, right?"

"I was going to use that tree stump by the edge of the yard."

"Aww, come on, it's not fun if you do that." Marisa looks toward Sunshine. "Okay, which one would you rather fight? Some dumb tree, or a snow monster?"

"Um." It seems pretty obvious, really. Judging by their stories, her parents fight monsters all the time. It's practically what monsters are for. Sunshine has only heard one story about her parents fighting a tree. That tree sounded kind of scary, but the stump in the back yard isn't. "Monster."

"Hehe. See? Monster's way better!" Marisa gestures her closer, and Sunshine approaches, her boots crunching through the snow. "Okay, this first ball's done, but we're gonna need three of them for it to be a proper snowman. So, what we're gonna do is..." She scoops up a big handful of snow, then compresses it between her hands. When she opens them, the snow has been compacted into a ball. She sits the ball down, then pushes it along. The snow on the ground sticks to its edges, and it grows. Sunshine peers at it, and Marisa steps away to offer it over. "Get the idea?"

Sunshine crouches down and gives the ball a cautious push, and a bit more snow sticks to its sides. She nods.

"Good! That one'll be the middle, so make it big, okay? Me and Alice will get started on the head."

Alice shakes her head with a sigh. "By the time you finish that, you'll be too cold for what we actually came out here for."

"Cold doesn't bother her much, right? She'll be fine!"

"I wasn't talking about Sunshine."

"Pff. I'm a heat magician, remember? I can keep myself warm pretty much forever."

"Didn't you set your gloves on fire the last time you tried that?"

"That was a fluke!" Marisa turns and tosses a smaller snowball to Alice, who fumblingly catches it. "Here, you're better at art stuff. Make a monster head, 'kay? I'm gonna go fetch the other supplies."

It is a very scary snow monster.

It has a big open mouth, and Marisa found some pointy rocks to fill it with sharp, crooked teeth. Gnarled branches give it arms and claws, and a pair of fat red marbles give it beady eyes. On top, two broken bamboo segments give it pointy horns.

"Snow oni," Marisa says proudly, as she finishes the final touches.

Sunshine has never seen an oni in person, but it fits her parents' descriptions of them. The snow oni is taller than any of them. Marisa had to hover to sit the head on top of the body. It looks like a worthy opponent.

"Yes, it's very impressive," Alice says. "Sunshine, are you ready to learn how to fight it?"

Sunshine glances to the snow oni again. It seems like a bit of a waste to shoot it after spending all of that time making it. She almost feels sorry for it. Her excitement for learning to fight still outweighs that, though. "Uh-huh."

Alice nods, and moves to a spot a few meters away. Sunshine follows after her. "Ichigo's attacks aren't dangerous, but I designed her to be flashy. If you're in danger, she should give you enough of a distraction to run away. You should only do that if somebody threatens you though, do you understand? People might get angry if you use her too much."

Sunshine nods dutifully.

"Good. Now..." Alice crouches down next to Sunshine. "I gave her a few basic commands to start with. Try telling her to attack the oni."

It feels like a very important moment. Sunshine takes a deep breath and points at the snow oni. "Attack, Ichigo!" she says, as ferociously as she can manage.

Ichigo wastes no time. The doll stiffens up from her limp hovering posture and raises both arms. Dozens of tiny, glowing bullets in every color of the rainbow burst out and patter against the oni's front. Snow crumbles to the ground. The bullets dissipate the moment that they hit, but when the attack stops a few seconds later, the snow oni is covered in pockmarks. Sunshine gapes in amazement at it.

"Do you think you understand?" Alice says. Sunshine nods, and she smiles. "If you need to, you can also control her aim by pointing. Here." She slides over behind Sunshine, and gently guides the girl's arm upward. "Try telling her to attack again."

"Attack!"

Again, Ichigo erupts into a rain of tiny bullets. This time, though, Alice guides Sunshine's hand around in a sweeping circle. Ichigo pivots to follow her direction, tracing a line of bullet marks down the oni's front.

"He's lookin' pretty beat up..." Marisa says, and gives the spray of bullets a wide berth as she walks around to join the two.

"I'm going to let go, okay?" Alice says, after a few more seconds of guiding Sunshine's aim. "Take a little time and get used to doing it yourself." She hesitantly releases Sunshine's hand. Sunshine continues to guide the doll's aim. She points it down toward the ground, and the bullets follow. A cloud of snow rises up from the impacts.

Sunshine traces the stream of bullets around, drawing a lazy figure-eight in the snow, then closes her hand into a fist. Ichigo's attack comes to an abrupt stop. Sunshine pulls her hand back carefully, afraid that she might accidentally direct Ichigo into attacking her. Ichigo stays still, though, and she allows herself to relax after a moment.

"Very good. The only other thing you should know about..." Alice scoops up Ichigo, and moves the doll out into the middle of the yard. She jogs a short distance away before continuing. "Try telling her to activate emergency mode."

"Um." Sunshine looks at Ichigo uncertainly. The stuff about attacks made sense, but she doesn't remember any emergencies from her parents' stories. "Activate emergency mode?"

Again, Ichigo's body stiffens up. The doll leaps into the air, coming to a stop around eye level, and the air around her erupts like a firework. Glowing bullets burst out in every direction, forming an intimidating shell of projectiles around the tiny doll. The collected light is bright enough that Sunshine has to avert her eyes, and Alice takes a few steps away to get to a safer distance. "This is only for emergencies," Alice says. "It should work if you get surrounded, and it's easy to see, so if you get hurt or lost, you can tell her to do this and it will make it easier for us to find you. Do you understand?"

This is all a bit much for Sunshine to take in, but she thinks she understands. It's for if she gets lost or has to fight lots of bad guys. She nods.

Marisa looks between the still-firing doll and Alice. "Uh, do we really have to worry about her getting surrounded?"

"I'd rather her have it and not need it than get cornered and not have it," Alice says.

"... don't worry, Sunshine, nothing's gonna attack you while we're around, 'kay? Your mom's just, uh, making sure you're safe. Really sure."

"We're not in the human village, dear. Youkai and fairies prowl around here at times. But, yes. Hopefully none of this will ever be necessary." Alice turns to Sunshine. "You can tell her to stop now."

Sunshine inclines her hand through a series of gestures. Even in the middle of her attack, Ichigo notices the subtle command and obeys, cutting off her attack and then hovering over to present herself to the girl. Sunshine scoops the doll up and gives her a hug.

Alice smiles at the display. "Hmm, now... for a little practice, why don't you try to use Ichigo to destroy the snowman? It should—"

"Aw, c'mon!" Marisa says, cutting her off. "We just finished him! It'd be a shame to blast him apart so quick, don't you think?"

"That was why we made him in the first place! … were you just looking for an excuse to build a snowman?"

"... so, anyway, what I'm thinking is," Marisa says, changing the subject gracelessly. "We have a spell card duel, right? But—"

"Marisa..."

"Hold on, just hear me out! We have a spell card duel, but Sunshine can ride shotgun on my broom and use Ichigo to help out." Marisa turns, and grins down to Sunshine. "What do you think, kiddo? Wanna have your first real spell card duel?"

"Yeah!" Sunshine's already squirming with excitement. She looks to Alice, and so many words try coming out of her that they almost jam up in her head. "Please, mom?! Like...! Like the, um. The story! With the ghost. You fought, and it was snowing!"

"Yeah! It'll be just like when we fought in the Spring Snow Incident! Except you won't end up faceplanted in the snow, 'cuz I'll tone down my firepower a little."

"That's not how I remember it," Alice says, in the tired voice that Sunshine has learned means that she knows she's fighting a losing battle. "Sunshine, are you sure you want to do this? It could be scary. You don't have to do it if you don't want."

Sunshine shakes her head. "I want to have a real fight!"

Alice studies her expression, then gives up with a defeated shake of her head and a smirk. "You're going to grow up every bit as hardheaded as Marisa, aren't you? I suppose I should welcome the chance for some practice. I'll go prepare, then." Alice turns and takes a few steps toward the cottage, then pauses. "Marisa?"

"Huh?"

"Don't think that I'll take it easy on you just because you have Sunshine is on your team. We haven't had many opportunities to practice lately, ourselves. It would be a shame to waste the chance by holding back, don't you think?"

"Hah! More like don't you come cryin' after me and Sunshine kick your butt. Ain't that right, kiddo?"

It takes Sunshine a moment to realize what Marisa is expecting out of her. She points a finger at Alice and squeaks, "Y-yeah!"

"I can see this will be a memorable fight," Alice says. After one last smirk at the two over her shoulder, she continues toward the door. "I should only take a few minutes. If you'd like to prepare for your defeat, do it now."

"Iiiiiiiiin this corner!" Marisa bellows. "The Pipsqueak Painbringer, the Fighter Fantastic of the Forest of Magic, the Half-Pint Hero...!" She pulls the broom into a level glide, freeing her hands for a grand gesture backward. "SUNSHIIIIIIIIINE!"

Sunshine looks up in bewilderment. Is she supposed to do something? She settles for a weak wave over to Alice, with one arm kept in a death grip around Marisa's waist. Marisa covers her own mouth with a hand and makes cheering noises.

Alice claps politely, and her dolls follow suit. "Did you spend that whole time thinking that up?" she shouts back.

Marisa ignores her. "Aaaaaaand in the other corner!" She circles Alice, gesturing to her with one hand. "Some weirdo with a buncha dolls!"

"If you're going to do it, you should do it properly!"

"Uh, fine, jeez, I dunno. The... Butt-kicker of Bucharest! The Doll Lady of, uh... I forget where I was goin' with that. She's got a really cute butt! ALIIIIIIIICE MARGATROOOOOID."

Sunshine doesn't dare to take her hands from around Marisa's waist for long enough to clap, but she directs Ichigo to do so. The doll claps excitedly for Alice. Sunshine can't even hear it over the wind. Alice shakes her head in exasperation at Marisa, but shoots Sunshine a grateful smile.

"Alright! So, how are we gonna do this?" Marisa pulls the broom to a stop alongside Alice. Alice is flanked by two dozen dolls, wielding blunt sparring weapons. Even hovering in midair, they stand in orderly lines. Even Sunshine feels a little intimidated by them. "Sunshine doesn't have spell cards, so I guess we should keep it simple. Go on the count of ten, fight 'til three hits?"

"That sounds fine," Alice agrees, and looks to Sunshine. "Are you sure that you're okay with this? If you get scared, tell Marisa and we'll stop, okay?"

Sunshine nods, and tries her very best to look brave. Alice floats closer and gives her a reassuring pat on the cheek. "My attacks will look scary, but I promise none of them will hurt you. Just try not to fall off of the broom, okay?"

"Okay...!" Sunshine redoubles her grip on Marisa's waist.

"Alright, break it up!" Marisa kicks her foot to the side, and the broom drifts a meter or so away from Alice. "Let's get started!"

"Good luck," Alice tells Sunshine, and retreats back to her cloud of dolls.

As Marisa starts shouting the countdown, Sunshine looks over her shoulder to Ichigo. "Um. It will be hard to talk. Shoot where I point, okay?" Ichigo gives no indication that she heard, but Sunshine is used to that. She trusts that the doll will obey.

"Alright, here we go! FIVE!" Marisa bellows. Sunshine squirms and tries getting into a secure position on the broom. Ichigo hunkers down behind her. "FOUR!" Dozens of meters away, Alice is making her own preparations. The dolls fan out around her, with the nearly-invisible wires that control them catching the light occasionally. "THREE!" Marisa pulls the mini-hakkero from her belt and flips it into her palm. "Sunshine, get ready, 'cuz we're gonna take off real fast, alright? TWO!" Marisa leans forward along the broom. Alice looks just as ready, bent forward in the air like she's prepared to pounce at the two. "ONE!" Sunshine squeezes her eyes shut and tugs herself tighter against Marisa.

If Marisa shouts 'GO!' it gets lost in everything that happens immediately afterward. The broom takes off like a rocket, jolting Sunshine backward. The cold wind whips past and blasts her hair back. After a second or two of this, she hesitantly opens her eyes, and finds the world whipping past, even faster than it does when they're flying somewhere for a long-distance trip. The trees below are now a green blur. Marisa's dress flaps loudly in the wind. Sunshine looks around the sky, but she can't see Alice anywhere.

The broom drops lower, and the two sweep through a broad turn just above tree level. Past Marisa's shoulder, Sunshine can see Alice hovering in place, waiting for them. Her dolls have scattered, and show up as little colored blotches in the air. "Alright, here we go!" Marisa shouts back. "Get ready to shoot her!"

As the two close the distance toward Alice, the sky lights up with magical effects. Ephemeral spell circles trace themselves into the air around the broom, while glimmering points of light on the dolls announce that they're stockpiling magical energy. In almost the same instant, both sides cut loose. The circles around Marisa spin rapidly and start spraying out bullets, filling the air with tightly-packed helixes of projectiles. Alice sweeps her arms through grand gestures, and a dozen dolls blast out neon beams of energy.

"Hold on!" The lasers close in around them like a web, and Marisa pushes the broom through a series of sharp dodges. Sunshine's world spins around her. Clinging to Marisa's clothes, she struggles to get her bearings. Finally, she spots Alice barely ten meters away, and thrusts a finger up to point at her. Ichigo shoots a stream of tiny bullets into the fray. Already dancing through a series of complicated dodges, Alice barely notices them until the last second. They don't hit, but Sunshine still feels proud as she watches her mother sidestep them.

"We got dolls comin' in!" Marisa shoots back. Sunshine can see them, taking advantage of the broom's reduced speed to close in on the pair. Marisa continues shooting, and they fly past half a dozen defeated dolls, with their hands in the air in surrender. Three sword-wielding Shanghai dolls chase after them, though, stubbornly staying in the blind spot behind Marisa's head. Sunshine belatedly realizes that she should be shooting. She still feels bad as she gives Ichigo the command to attack. Ichigo fires a few quick bursts of bullets at them, and while the dolls try to dodge through it, one of them gets smacked in the stomach. The doll raises its hands in defeat, and it soon falls away.

The other two dolls stick with them, though, swooping through a series of curves as Marisa tries to shake them off. "Think you can shoot 'em?"

"Um, maybe!" Sunshine scowls at the remaining two dolls and jabs her finger at them a few more times. Ichigo matches each one with a burst of bullets. The dolls continue ducking and weaving through the fire until they're close enough for one to lunge at her. Sunshine yelps and ducks away.

And, the other doll takes its chance. It leaps forward while Sunshine is distracted, and jabs Marisa in the side with its thankfully-dull lance.

"O-oof, hey!" Marisa grunts. The broom wobbles through the air as she recovers.

"Sorry!" Sunshine squeaks. She peppers the air behind them with bursts of tiny bullets in retaliation, but the dolls have already finished what they came here for. They drop away from the broom, and she soon loses sight of them.

"Don't worry about it. She's only got one point on us. C'mon, let's get revenge!"

Sunshine starts to nod, but the broom whips through a hairpin turn, and she ends up cringing and pulling herself tight against Marisa again. In a matter of seconds, they screech to a halt. They're left pointed toward both Alice and the pursuing dolls. The dolls rush toward them, but Marisa already has the mini-hakkero primed and raised.

The air trembles, and a Master Spark explodes outward. A hot backdraft buffets Sunshine's face and blasts her hair behind her. Even that much is weaker than she'd expected. Marisa's shown off the attack plenty of times. It's supposed to be a heavy, booming thing that rattles her to her core. This version, though, is watered down. The many dolls caught in the beam tumble backward through the air, but otherwise seem unaffected. Even Alice, at the far end of the blast, only has to shield her eyes against the glare. Regardless, Marisa maintains a knife-edged grin through the attack, her hair billowing in the unnatural wind. "That's one to one!"

The Master Spark fades slowly, and the moment that Alice can see again, she unleashes her counterattack. With another series of exaggerated string-pulls, her remaining dolls sweep in from every direction.

A dozen multicolored streams of bullets converge on their position. Marisa rolls the broom to the side to avoid the worst of them. "Hang on! Gonna do somethin' stupid!" She leans forward, and they... stop flying. In a free fall, the broom plummets past the attackers in a second. Sunshine's eyes go wide at the brief sensation of weightlessness, which is followed by crushing weight as they pull up out of the drop. The broom creaks beneath them, and soon they're on a level course, skimming across the treetops. Marisa looks back to survey her handiwork, and Sunshine follows suit. The dolls that were caught in the Master Spark are all hovering down to join their defeated sisters beneath Alice. Sunshine feels bad for them. It hadn't looked like the attack hurt them, but she personally would have felt terrible if she'd failed Alice like that.

There's no time to dwell on that, though. Marisa looks forward again and guides the broom through a sweeping S-curve to shed some of their speed. "She's playin' serious now!" she shouts back over her shoulder. "Let's give her all we've got this time, yeah?"

Sunshine gives a resolute nod, but she's worried now. What if they lose? That would be a terrible way to start being a hero. She glances back at Ichigo and purses her lips in thought. Ichigo can't shoot very far, so she's not able to do much at the ranges where Alice and Marisa fight. She's good at keeping Alice's dolls away, but for anything else, she'd need to be closer. Sunshine wouldn't last a second if she tried flying through all of those bullets on her own, though, so how's she supposed to do anything?

They climb back up to Alice's level, and rainbow flowers of bullets fill the air. Marisa pulls the broom through a zig-zag series of dodges, and Sunshine hunkers down as the broom creaks beneath her. As they close in, she fires a scattershot burst of glowing orbs from the mini-hakkero. The attacks burst into sparks near Alice, and the dolls' attacks slow down as she focuses on weaving through them. While she's distracted, Marisa pulls the broom into an orbit around her. The mini-hakkero gleams with sharp light. A whirling store of stars blasts outward, and the broom recoils under the force of Marisa's attack. Even as Alice dodges, half a dozen dolls dart upward to meet them.

Marisa cackles with delight as she dodges through Alice's counterattack. Sunshine, though, is just doing all that she can to hang on. The entire world whirls around her in a colorful blur. She can't even get her bearings for long enough to point at Alice, let alone have any hope of hitting her. Another bullet clips Marisa, knocking her hat askew, and Sunshine squirms anxiously. One more hit and they lose, right?

She knows what she needs to do now, but she doesn't like it. She shoots Ichigo an apologetic glance, then traces out a few quick gestures. The doll obeys. Without hesitation, Ichigo leaps off of the broom and takes off on her own. In the much larger firestorm between Alice and Marisa, neither of them pay much attention to the tiny doll

Ichigo darts toward Alice like a bullet. Alice spots the doll, but she's in the middle of a complicated attack, guiding a dozen dolls through the air. It's all the opportunity that Ichigo needs to get in close.

Sunshine hunkers down on the broom and tenses her entire body for a single shout. "E-EMERGENCY MODE!"

Alice starts backpedaling as soon as she hears the first syllable, but it's too late. Ichigo raises both arms in the air and unleashes a deluge of bullets in every direction. Barely a meter away, Alice has no hope of dodging. She can only shield her face with her forearms as she's pelted with dozens of bullets. Sunshine scores the winning hit, and the fifty-six that follow.

Once they're back inside, it takes Sunshine the better part of an hour to calm back down from her victory. Defeated or not, it brings a smile to Alice's face. It's rare to see the girl's moods stick around for long; usually, they fade within minutes unless she finds ways to keep herself excited. Alice has her theories about why this happens—the physical processes that drive human emotion, versus the much more responsive magical nature of Sunshine's consciousness—but it's not a subject that she can speak on with any certainty.

After Sunshine has relaxed enough to settle down for her afternoon nap, Alice throws her winter clothes on and walks out to her workshop. Waiting inside are the dolls that were caught in Marisa's Master Spark. Even with the weaker sparring version of the attack, they look worse for the wear. A few of their outfits are singed around the edges, and on a closer look, she finds that the pressure of the attack has damaged a few delicate joints. After the inspection, she lines the dolls up along the back of the desk, then begins mending them.

It's slow work, slower than normal. She has to flex their joints by hand and hold them in place with a vice as she makes repairs. It sucks up her focus, and she doesn't realize that the door has opened behind her until Marisa speaks up. "... you still aren't used to the new dolls, huh?"

Alice freezes in momentary surprise, then looks back over her shoulder. Behind her, Marisa is leaning in the doorway, with only a light overcoat over her dress to deal with the winter cold. "Is it that obvious?"

"A little, yeah." Marisa pushes the door closed behind her and stomps the snow off of her boots. She leans over the desk. Taking a doll's arm in her hands, she idly flexes the joint. "The strings mean you can't move very fast, right? And you basically have to stick in one spot?"

"They... do have some drawbacks, yes. They're still fine for dueling on the ground."

Alice keeps detailed records of her dolls. Between Sunshine's creation and the point when she discovered that Sunshine had become self-aware, she knows that she lost twenty-two dolls: nine destroyed by Marisa in a sparring match, five more packed with gunpowder that she purposely detonated during the same fight, six that she broke down for parts, and two who had simply worn down. Any of those dolls, with a turn of bad luck, could have been Sunshine.

So, she's made changes. These new combat dolls are simple, without many of the improvements that she's developed over the years. Their bodies are solid wood, without the gunpowder chamber and fuse mechanism that she used to put in her combat dolls. They're tethered to their strings, and can just barely move fifty meters from her if she's careful. Now that she's taken the strings off, they can't move at all. And, most importantly, there's nothing approaching awareness in their heads. They're simple magical automatons, nothing more.

It's a small price to pay for the peace of mind. But it does come with limitations. Seeing Marisa's skeptical glance, Alice continues. "I'm still refining my techniques with them. They're weaker, but direct control allows me to use more unpredictable attacks. Since they're not enchanted to follow orders, I can use stronger combat enchantments on them... It will be fine."

"Yeah, I guess," Marisa says, not sounding convinced. "Things have been pretty calm lately, anyway. I guess we're not gonna need to fly off and solve an incident any time soon."

"You mean that you won't need to," Alice says, her voice tempered with distraction as she paints over a just-repaired chip on a doll's knee. "One of us needs to stay home and watch Sunshine."

"She can come too!" Marisa protests, in that half-joking tone that always makes it hard for Alice to tell if she's serious or not. She steps closer and watches Alice work over her shoulder. "It'll be like a family outing!"

"Yes, I'm sure that she could learn a lot about practical archeology by watching you carry off bags full of our opponents' belongings between fights."

"I'll nab her some presents. We'll call it an early birthday." Marisa goes quiet for a moment as Alice puts the finishing touches on the knee, then leans in to wrap her arms around her waist, grinning more deviously. "Besides, my back gets cold without somebody sittin' behind me."

"And whatever happened to 'I'm a heat magician, I can keep myself warm forever'?"

"It's more fun if you do it."

Marisa leans closer in and buries her face against the side of Alice's neck for a few kisses. Alice gives a slight sigh of annoyance, but still reaches back and ruffles her hair. "Did you come out here to tell me something, or are you just here to distract me?"

"I actually did have something to talk about, but I dunno, distractin' is turning out to be pretty fun..."

"You're going to have to pick one of the two, dear."

"Hm." Marisa lingers for a bit longer, then reluctantly lets go of Alice. She steps around and hops up to take a seat on the edge of the desk. "Well, it's a surprise! Take a guess!"

"Or you could just tell me," Alice says, and blows on the paint on the doll's newly-mended knee.

"Hmm..." Marisa leans back on the desk, grinning up at the ceiling. "Tell ya what, we'll compromise. First hint! I ran into someone in the village today."

Alice looks up from her work. "... are you really going to make me guess?" When Marisa's expression doesn't falter, she crosses her arms and considers this. "Reimu?" A shake of Marisa's head. "Kosuzu?" Another shake. "... it couldn't have been Sakuya, or you wouldn't be smiling... Keine?"

"One point for the pretty lady!"

"Is that all?" Alice says, until slow realization sparkles in her eyes. Marisa's grin only grows in response. "... then what did she say?"

"Hmm? I told you you've gotta guess, didn't I?"

Normally, a response like that would infuriate Alice, but now, she's too focused on the topic. "Does she think Sunshine is ready for school?"

"Well, she didn't put it quite like that, but..."

Alice steps closer. "But what, then?!"

Marisa waits, savoring Alice's anticipation, before she caves in. "... she does think Sunshine might be ready to start school, yeah. She wants us to bring her in sometime. Get a good look at her for herself before she decides, you know?"

Alice closes the last of the distance between them, pulling Marisa into a tight hug and letting out a low sigh of relief. "She's going to be so excited..."